TidBITS#284/03-Jul-95
=====================
This week we bring you news of Apple's acquisition of the popular
Internet mail server program MailShare, along with Apple's
re-acquisition of Guy Kawasaki, this time in the prestigious
role of an Apple Fellow. Also, Adam steps onto the soapbox for
a moment to comment on the direction of TidBITS, we bring you
an overview of StarNine's Mac Web server WebSTAR, and Tonya
begins a two-part review of the FullWrite 2.0 word processor
from Akimbo Systems.
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 --
Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
For APS price lists, email:
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- http://www.halcyon.com/
Providing access to the global Internet.
* Hayden Books, an imprint of Macmillan Computer Publishing
Free shipping on orders via the Web -- http://www.mcp.com/
Mac Tip of the Day & free books! -- http://www.mcp.com/hayden/
Copyright 1990-1995 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
Information: Comments:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Topics:
MailBITS/03-Jul-95
TidBITS Contents
StarNine Ships WebSTAR
FullWrite, Part I of II
Reviews/03-Jul-95
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1995/TidBITS#284_03-Jul-95.etx
MailBITS/03-Jul-95
------------------
I never scoff at the occasional bit of serendipity, but I may
laugh heartily at it. After Cary Lu's article, "Computing's Holy
War," in TidBITS-283_, the online version of Dilbert began to
cover much the same topic. "What's Dilbert?" you ask. Check out
the URL below, and then look at the cartoons in the two-week
archive starting with the 950622 file. [ACE]
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/
**Just an Apple Fellow Kind of Guy** -- The rumors were true:
Apple announced last week that Guy Kawasaki has been appointed an
Apple Fellow. Always an outspoken and often controversial advocate
of the Macintosh, Guy led Apple's developer relations and product
management efforts on the Macintosh from 1983 to 1987 - where he
coined the term "software evangelist" - before leaving to found
ACI US and pursue other enterprises, most recently serving as the
president of Fog City Software, the creators of Claris's
forthcoming Emailer program. Guy is the author of several books,
including _The_Macintosh_Way_ and
_How_to_Drive_Your_Competition_Crazy_, and has frequented the
pages of MacUser and Macworld as a columnist. As an Apple Fellow,
Guy will "represent developer issues and perspective to Apple" as
well as work with various developers and "serve as a resource" for
Apple projects. Sounds suspicious, doesn't it? Developer reaction
to the announcement has been positive - if nothing else, Guy's
return to Apple should make life a lot more interesting. Apple
needs someone like Guy to yell loudly about various inanities
every now and then. [GD]
http://www.umsl.edu/~sbmeade/macway/
**QuickTime 2.0** is now available for Mac and Windows directly
over the Internet. Until now, QuickTime 2.0 has been available
only with the purchase of System 7.5, or a Mac with 7.5 pre-
installed, or Mac or Windows multimedia software that includes a
copy. Apple's new QuickTime-oriented Web server offers Mac or
Windows versions for $9.95 using First Virtual's Internet payment
system for secure credit card transactions. The software is sent
directly to the purchaser's computer via FTP. According to Apple
Software Licensing, QuickTime 2.0 may also now be purchased via
CompuServe, and other online services might get into the game.
[MHA]
http://quicktime.apple.com/
http://fv.com/
**Apple Acquires MailShare** -- Apple announced last week that it
has acquired both Glenn Anderson and his excellent program
MailShare, an SMTP and POP Internet mail server for the Mac. Apple
will rename the program "Apple Internet Mail Server" and plans to
continue making the current version of the software available as
freeware on the Internet, although future versions will be
commercial products. Glenn will be moving to Cupertino from New
Zealand to work for Apple as a software engineer. It's nice to see
additional recognition of Internet talent from Apple -
particularly if Apple pays Glenn's moving expenses. [GD]
http://abs.apple.com/products/mailserver.html
**Dan Kogai** writes:
Since making HTML documents is one of my tasks, I was excited to
see in TidBITS-283_ that ClarisWorks 4.0 was shipping. I
immediately purchased the upgrade online from Cyberian Outpost and
it came in a few days. Here's what I found: HTML? Yes! WorldScript
support? Nah. ClarisWorks 4.0 does have WorldScript preferences,
and it did show Japanese text, with trouble. ClarisWorks 4.0 did
not calculate the width of 2-byte character codes correctly, so
the text didn't select or wrap correctly. This is hardly
satisfactory. I expected _true_ WorldScript support like Nisus
Writer. We have the "kurarisuwaakusu" (Japanese) version of
ClarisWorks, which is a best-seller in Japan, but it's only
version 2.0 and the HTML translator doesn't work with it! The HTML
translator of ClarisWorks 4.0 is great, but I have to write HTML
both in English and Japanese. It's a good thing I have Nisus
Writer handy, which can also handle HTML. [With an excellent set
of HTML macros from Sandra Silcot - see the second URL below.
-Adam]
http://www.cybout.com/
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com//pub/tidbits/tisk/html/nisus-ss-html-macros-20.hqx
**Get a Grip** -- PowerBook owners who plan to spend any time
where its hot enough that sitting quietly at your keyboard can
make you sweat, or who carry their PowerBooks around a lot, might
want to check out a product called Grip~it Strips, which make the
surface of your PowerBook (or any portable computer or device)
less slippery. Grip~it Strips work much like stickers, only their
non-stick sides are rough and rubbery. Grip~it Strips come in
several shapes, including long, thin, lightning-bolt zig zags,
dots, and diamonds. You can put them on in regular patterns, or
you can combine them to make flowers or avant garde designs.
Grip~it Strips have been available for some time now; for the past
year, Adam has used them on his PowerBook 100, and they do make
handling easier. I didn't put them on my Duo, because I feared
they might prevent it from fitting into a dock in a possible
future life. I recently found out that I shouldn't have worried -
apparently Duos can dock with Grip~it Strips attached, and if a
future problem came up, the strips can be peeled off and their
stickiness removed with a little rubbing alcohol. A Grip~it Strip
package sells for around $9. [TJE]
http://www.grip-it.com/
TidBITS Contents
----------------
by Adam C. Engst
As I'm sure most of you have noticed, and a couple of you have
commented upon, we've been publishing more articles about the
Internet in TidBITS over the last few months. These articles, for
the most part, do concentrate on the relationship of the Macintosh
and the Internet, or look at Macintosh software that one uses to
connect to the Internet.
Some people feel that this is a change in our focus, and that
feeling is both correct and incorrect. In the first three years of
TidBITS, we focused much more on specific Macintosh programs,
utilities, tips, and so on. Although there was a certain amount of
Internet-related news, I included it not so much because it was
guaranteed to interest readers, but because the Internet was (and
remains) by far the main way TidBITS is distributed. Then, after I
wrote the first edition of _Internet_Starter_Kit_for_Macintosh_,
an increasing amount of Macintosh-related Internet information
started appearing.
There are a few reasons for this. First, the "mission statement"
of TidBITS (not that I'm really the sort to record such a thing)
is to report on news, events, and products that interest me (or
Tonya, Geoff, or Mark, especially as they have taken over more of
the work). Egotistical and opinionated as that may be, that has
been the overriding force behind TidBITS for its entire life. As
I've done more in the industry, learned more about the Mac,
written more articles, met more people, and so on, it's only
reasonable that my interests would evolve over time, and in this
case, they've evolved toward the Internet. Second, one of the
reasons my interests have moved ever toward the Internet is that
I'm a bit of a populist, at least in the sense that I'm
increasingly uninterested in niches or in fields that exclude
people. When TidBITS started, programs were less powerful but had
less of a learning curve, and of course, there were fewer of them.
They were more inclusive - more people would use something like
PageMaker even if they weren't serious desktop publishers, perhaps
because it was really good at making signs or something like that.
Programs like that still exist, certainly, but the examples tend
to stick out more these days. RAM Doubler is the big one, and
things like Conflict Catcher, or the Now Utilities, or Retrospect
- all of these are programs that any Macintosh user could want and
could use. I'm not saying that everyone does, or should, but you
don't have to be in a certain industry, or have a certain skill
set to use these programs. They _include_ users.
I've been an Internet user for many years, but in writing the
book, I learned a lot more about what software was available for
Mac users to access the Internet as Mac users should - via clean
graphical interfaces. I also started to meet some of the
programmers and become involved in a Mac Internet culture I hadn't
previously known. In the process I realized several things. I
realized that the Internet is not exclusionary - anyone can, if
they want to, find something of interest, no matter what they do
or who they are. I also saw what could happen when talented
programmers working on their own communicate with one another. I
saw programs like NewsWatcher build in a commonly agreed-upon
Apple event to support programs like Anarchie and Fetch, and then
later TurboGopher and MacWeb. I saw Peter Lewis and Quinn write
Internet Config and release it to the public domain, merely
because it was the right thing to do.
While all of this happened, I was watching much of the rest of the
Macintosh industry stagnate. Everything was a "me-too" program,
yet another contact database, or version X.0 of a program that had
been around for years. I saw few new ways of thinking about how we
use computers, and how programs and programmers can make that
process both easier and more enjoyable. Sure, there were brief
moments of light, a feature here or there that was just done
right, but it's been a time of bloatware and refinement. Nothing
inherently wrong with that, but it doesn't flip my pancakes.
It's not easy putting out a newsletter every week, and the things
that keep you going are the excitement of what's changing, the
feeling of having done a really solid article on something, and
the kind comments from readers. And, for me personally, a lot of
it is the satisfaction of having done something different, of
having broken the rules (most of which I never knew to begin with
anyway).
I hope that explains a bit of why our subject matter has slowly
evolved to include more Internet-related topics. We are by no
means going Internet-only, and only time will tell toward what we
end up evolving in the future.
StarNine Ships WebSTAR
----------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder, News Editor
StarNine Technologies has made waves with the recent release of
the new WebSTAR World Wide Web server software for Macintosh and
Power Macintosh. The software is a new version of Chuck Shotton's
MacHTTP server utility, with quite a bit of additional
functionality and performance, a cleaner user interface, and
StarNine's marketing muscle behind it. Apple has taken WebSTAR to
heart, including it at the core of the company's ready-out-of-the-
box Internet server machines.
Naturally, WebSTAR is a Macintosh application first and foremost.
It brings configuration and control directly to the user in very
Mac-like ways, combining intuitive dialog boxes and informative
displays with a remote administration tool that network
administrators will fall in love with. The WebSTAR Admin
application uses Apple's Program Linking feature (which debuted
along with File Sharing in System 7, but has gotten far less
attention) to monitor and control the Web server's activities and
features from any Macintosh on the same AppleTalk network. The
only flaw in this arrangement is that administrators ought to be
able to perform the same tasks via TCP/IP over the Internet, where
AppleTalk connectivity isn't always feasible. Since Timbuktu Pro
works via TCP/IP and is a common tool in net managers' arsenals,
this shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
Like any good Macintosh application, WebSTAR runs on just about
any member of the Mac family. Sites with simple needs could use a
low-end Mac as their Web server (WebSTAR requires a Mac with 4 MB
of RAM and System 7, as well as a full-fledged connection to the
Internet), though of course a faster Macintosh will offer better
responsiveness and much smoother multi-user performance. The
software is available in both 68000 and PowerPC versions. Our
tests show that WebSTAR performs without apparent slowness while
handling multiple requests on a Mac IIsi and a Centris 610, two
computers from Apple's past that were never considered
particularly speedy. Reliable sources say that WebSTAR "really
cooks" on a Power Macintosh 9500/132, but that's no surprise.
One frequent comment we've heard is that "serious" or high-traffic
Web sites should stick with traditional Unix computers running
NCSA's httpd or Netscape's server software. Judging on a cost
basis alone, we disagree; it would be less expensive to set up a
rotating pool of Mac-based Web servers than a single high-
horsepower Unix server. According to MacHTTP author Chuck Shotton,
"If you compare $10,000 worth of Macs versus a single $10,000 Unix
workstation, you can buy or re-use several Macs and, with mirrored
copies of WebSTAR installed on each, create a powerful array of
computers that behave like a single Web site to browsers on the
Net and easily outpaces the performance of a single Unix
workstation."
Some sites on the Web already use multiple Unix workstations to
handle heavy loads, so this approach isn't too non-traditional.
Shotton also stresses that there's a large expense inherent in
hiring or training the Unix expert(s) needed to run a Web server,
making WebSTAR even more affordable. As an example, downloading
the 2 MB WebSTAR compressed archive from StarNine's Web site via
modem took longer, by far, than installing it on a Mac and getting
it running, ready to serve Web pages.
A comparison less likely to draw comment from Unix aficionados
relates to security concerns. Some Unix-based Web server software
in the past has allowed browsers access to directories and files
that were never meant to be published. WebSTAR carefully avoids
this scenario by allowing only files and directories contained
within its folder to be accessed. As with MacHTTP, the
administrator may configure the WebSTAR server to require username
and password authentication for access to some or all material,
and can limit access to certain domains and IP address ranges.
WebSTAR works in conjunction with a variety of other programs,
both commercial and not, to make your Mac Internet server act in
many ways like a fully-functional (dare we say it?) Unix machine.
A good example is StarNine's own ListSTAR, their new mailing list
software available in SMTP and LAN-based mail flavors. The fully
scriptable ListSTAR can work well with WebSTAR to generate mailing
lists with a forms-based subscription front end on the Web.
Naturally, WebSTAR also works well in conjunction with other IP
server utilities such as MailShare and FTPd.
For database searches, StarNine says its WebSTAR server isn't
limited to interacting just with scriptable database applications
such as FileMaker Pro. EveryWare Development Corporation's new
ButlerLink/Web is designed to serve as intermediary between
WebSTAR and SQL compliant database engines like its own Butler SQL
package. This toolkit is included with Apple's new Internet
servers, and is available from EveryWare and its resellers.
(EveryWare is also working on OpenDoc-compliant database tools,
which were on display at last month's PC Expo.)
http://www.everyware.com/
WebSTAR also now supports pre-processing and post-processing of
URLs received from Web browsers, so that the URLs may be
redirected to any application via AppleScript, and allows custom
actions based on the filename extensions of requested URLs.
If you've been meaning to try WebSTAR but had given up thanks to
last Friday's expiration date on StarNine's demo version (see
TidBITS-282_), take another look. The company has extended its
free demonstration version, available from their Web site, to work
until 01-Aug-95. Coincidentally, that's the same day WebSTAR's
prices go up, so you'll want to move fast.
http://www.starnine.com/
Speaking of prices, WebSTAR bears a $349 introductory price
through 31-Jul-95. After July ends, the price goes to the
published list price of $795 for new users. (MacHTTP users who
registered before 02-May-95 may purchase the software now for $99,
or after 31-Jul-95 for $495.) Discounts are available for
educational institutions.
EveryWare Development -- 905/819-1173 --
StarNine Technologies, Inc. -- 800/525-2580 -- 510/649-4949
Information from:
StarNine propaganda
EveryWare propaganda
Pythaeus
FullWrite, Part I of II
-----------------------
by Tonya Engst
Although FullWrite is only at version 2.0, the word processing
program has been around for years. It began life in 1988 as
Ashton-Tate's FullWrite Professional, but after Borland acquired
Ashton-Tate, not much happened with FullWrite until Akimbo Systems
purchased the program in 1993 and released version 1.7.
Akimbo released FullWrite 2.0 in October of 1994. My enthusiastic
plans to use FullWrite as my primary word processor for a month or
so before reviewing it were set back substantially by my car
accident last fall, and it's becoming clear that I should write
the review already, and not try to base it on a month's
experience. The review came out a little on the long side, so it
will finish in next week's issue.
Currently at version 2.0.3, FullWrite runs on a Macintosh Plus or
newer, with System 6.0.4 and newer. Although the PowerPC-native
version is not yet available, FullWrite runs fine on a Power
Macintosh in emulation. FullWrite takes up slightly less than 4 MB
of disk space for a complete install, and asks for a preferred RAM
allocation of 2 MB, though its suggested size is 1.5 MB and
minimum size is 1 MB. Akimbo suggests that Power Macintosh users
set a preferred allocation of 3 MB. You'll need to increase the
memory allocation for complex documents or documents over 100
pages; the "FullWrite 2 Read Me" file explains this nicely.
Running on my Duo 230 (33 MHz 68030) and running in emulation
(approximately Mac IIfx speeds) on my Power Mac 7100, FullWrite is
fast enough that I don't notice its speed - it just works. Dialog
boxes appear promptly, text formats apply quickly, and scrolling
with the scroll bar or the Page Up and Page Down keys goes fast.
FullWrite has no toolbars, and it keeps its number of clickable
doodads to a minimum. Its rulers (which show optionally) offer an
intelligent and manageable number of options. The bottom edge of
its document window displays a small status box and five small
buttons which let you switch among FullWrite's five views: Icon
Bar, Outline, Change Bar, One Page, and Two Page (you can also
press Command-Comma to switch views). The first three views
include visual elements that help in creating a document; the
latter two remove the visual elements and give one- and two-page
views of the document.
FullWrite's keyboard shortcuts are weird - it offers a few on the
menus, but not many. You can issue any command on any menu by
pressing a logical sequence of keys, but I'd prefer to have more
shortcuts pre-assigned. I've seen FullWrite criticized online and
in Connie Gugliemo's "War of the Words" (MacUser, Apr-95) for
having most of its options stuffed in dialog boxes that require
you to access them through the menus; this is only partly true -
FullWrite has a number of subtle tricks for working efficiently,
but you must read the manual to learn them.
http://www.ziff.com:8007/~macuser/mu_0495/feature1.html
That said, let's see how FullWrite would work in a few different
situations, starting with my fourteen-year-old sister, Rebecca.
Rebecca needs to write reports for school and wouldn't mind
dabbling with graphics.
**High School Student** -- Rebecca may have trouble finding the
Spelling Checker by looking at the menus, and if she looks up
Spelling in the online help, the help incorrectly directs her to
choose an unspecified command from the Edit menu. The manual,
suggests that she use the Edit Word submenu. Eventually, Rebecca
will discover the Check Document command in a hierarchical menu
off the Words command, which is in the Tools menu. Once you find
the Spelling Checker, it works fine. Suggested replacement words
appear with Command-key shortcuts.
FullWrite employs a main dictionary, which comes with the program;
a user dictionary, which you add words to in order to supplement
the main dictionary; and a document dictionary, which holds words
that are considered correct in a specific document. You can
purchase FullWrite with any main dictionary, and there are many
choices (though no Arabic or Asian options), including two
varieties of English, two of French, two of Portuguese, and two of
German. Additional dictionaries cost $40.
FullWrite comes with many extensions, add-ons that enhance the
program. Some extensions provide standard features (such as
spelling and balloon help); others are more esoteric. Learn
Selection, an extension that began shipping with more recent
versions of FullWrite 2.0.x, enables you to add batches of words
to the user dictionary. If you bought FullWrite before Learn
Selection came out, you can download the extension from the
Internet.
ftp://ftp.std.com//vendors/Akimbo/learn-selection.sit.hqx
The footnote and endnote features should carry Rebecca through
high school and her undergraduate years at college. Endnotes can
go at the end of each "chapter" or at the end of a document.
FullWrite does not work with Niles and Associates' EndNote
referencing software, but it does offer a Bibliography feature to
help in referencing situations where you place the author's name
and date in the document text and list the complete reference at
the end of the chapter or document. To get the most out of
referencing and other features, Rebecca will need to become
comfortable with Icon Bar View and note panels.
When you type the text for a document element such as a footnote,
header, or annotation, you type in a separate window-like area
called a "note panel." The note panel looks much like a window,
although pressing Command-W to close it does not work - you must
use the mouse or press Command-` (that's the single quote on the
Tilde key). After you insert an element, FullWrite shows an icon
just left of the line where you inserted it. (The icon only shows
in Icon Bar View.) You can double-click an icon to open its
associated notes window. The icons make sense, but their tiny size
may make them cryptic for some, and FullWrite does not offer a
zooming feature. Footnotes, headers, and so on show on the page in
the correct location in most views, though to edit them you must
work in a note panel.
Rebecca likes to create cards and letters that have creative,
colorful touches, so she'll appreciate the capability of
formatting text in any of 32,768 colors. FullWrite also offers a
competent picture editor for creating graphics; unfortunately, you
cannot import graphics except through the clipboard. Rebecca will
enjoy adding borders by paragraph. Borders can be colored or in
shades of gray and you get six or so options including single and
double lines, and hairlines.
If Rebecca becomes concerned with formatting, she'll encounter a
gentle introduction to styles through the Base Styles dialog box,
where she can format common document elements such as document
text, footnotes, and headers. By using the Base Styles dialog box
you are setting styles, though you don't have to think of it that
way.
**Graduate Student** -- My other sister, Rachel, is currently
about to spend two years working for the Peace Corps in The
Gambia, West Africa, but she recently completed her masters degree
at Yale, and I'm pretending she's still there for the sake of this
review. Rachel has a PowerBook 145, writes long papers, and works
with scientific data.
FullWrite uses EGO (Edit Graphic Object - EGO works much like OLE
from the user's standpoint, and it does _work_) to integrate an
Equation extension, which is a "junior version" of Design
Science's Math Type. Any EGO-savvy application can hook into
FullWrite, and Rachel might be keen on trying Cambridge Scientific
Computing's line of chemistry-related products.
Rachel will also use the Classify feature, which flexibly lets you
number figures and other items. Classified items can be cross-
referenced, though I found the steps, terminology, and interface
for cross-referencing awkward. You can create multiple references
to a single footnote, endnote, or bibliography entry. Although
FullWrite has no features for numbering or referencing across
multiple documents, you can create hypertext links within a
document.
Because Rachel writes longer documents, she will use the Chapter
Ruler feature. FullWrite documents can be broken into chapters,
and to start a new chapter, you insert a Chapter Ruler. (Chapter
Rulers function much like section breaks in Microsoft Word.) The
Ruler sits in your text and you use it or double-click it to
fiddle with the columns in the new chapter, the header and footer
height, or the page numbering. I _like_ this method of dividing a
document and formatting the resulting "chapters" - it's the most
elegant approach I've seen yet.
**Next week** -- Next week I'll continue this review with a look
at how my Mom and myself might use FullWrite, along with some
concluding thoughts.
Reviews/03-Jul-95
-----------------
* MacWEEK -- 26-Jun-95, Vol. 9, #26
CD-ROM Drives -- pg. 35
AppleCD 600e Quad-Speed
FWB hammerCD 6x Reader
NEC MultiSpin 6X
KPT Vector Effects -- pg. 35
MicroNet Master CD Pro -- pg. 38
InfoGenie 1.0.2 -- pg. 40
* MacUser -- Aug-95
Power Computing Power 100 -- pg. 37
Projectors -- pg. 43
InFocus LitePro 580
nView nFinity P115
Sharp XG-E650U
In Control for Workgroups -- pg. 46
ARCserve for Macintosh -- pg. 48
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3c -- pg. 52
TurboCAD for Macintosh -- pg. 53
OneWorld Internet -- pg. 54
Mathematica 2.2.2 -- pg. 56
Pantone ColorDrive -- pg. 61
Alchemy 3.0 -- pg. 61
ScanPartner Junior -- pg. 65
Taxi with Zagat Surveys -- pg. 65
MacLinkPlus 8.0 -- pg. 67
Power Macintosh 9500 -- pg. 68
Desktop Publishers Tools -- pg. 82
(too many to list)
Macintosh Utilities -- pg. 92
(too many to list)
$$
Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if
full credit is given. Others please contact us. We don't guarantee
accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and
company names may be registered trademarks of their companies.
This file is formatted as setext. For more information send email
to . A file will be returned shortly.
For information on TidBITS: how to subscribe, where to find back
issues, and other useful stuff, send email to:
Send comments and editorial submissions to:
Issues available at: ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/
And: http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/TidBITS/TidBITS.html
To search back issues with WAIS, use this URL via a Web browser:
http://www.wais.com/wais-dbs/macintosh-tidbits.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------